Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has released a report showing that about one million people are stuck on long-term, work-related benefits. The figure’s size confirms that welfare is an area in which the Government can and must make savings. The steps that it has already taken – such as replacing the Disability Living Allowance with the more targeted Personal Independence Payment – deserve applause.

Of course, reforming an elephantine institution is a slow and complex task, fraught with potential error. Mr Duncan Smith is rolling out a Universal Credit scheme, which merges several benefits into a single payment. It is a noble idea, but presents enormous and worrying challenges in terms of delivery. Nevertheless, at least Mr Duncan Smith is trying to do something to rein in spending. Ed Miliband, by contrast, has criticised every one of the Government’s proposals. His “opposition for opposition’s sake” is not only irresponsible but politically short-sighted. Even some of his own MPs are talking about the need to introduce a contributory principle to welfare.

Mr Duncan Smith’s report highlights something else that Labour is reluctant to discuss: the economic and social impact of family breakdown. It includes the astonishing claim that almost two thirds of children living in the poorest households do not live with both parents. The strains in our welfare system, and in our housing stock, are part of the price we pay for social breakdown – a breakdown that correlates to Labour’s welfare policies when in power. Its Working Families Tax Credit, for example, hiked the benefits available to single mothers who sought employment. This was followed by a 160 per cent rise in the rate of divorce or separation among women whose partners did little or no paid work. Bad policy can have terrible long-term consequences.